OpenOwnership seeks a governance consultant to work with the Steering Group and staff to help us formalise and adopt an efficient and effective governance structure as we move into the second phase of the project.

Each year, billions of dollars in illicit funds – the fruits of crime, corruption or tax evasion – pass through anonymous companies. They are the most popular getaway vehicle for grand corruption by far, designed to allow their owners to...

In the first post in this series on the principles of verification, particularly relating to beneficial ownership, we explained why there is no guarantee that any piece of beneficial ownership data is the absolute truth.

Last year, the Panama Papers showed us how opaque corporate structures are used to facilitate global money laundering, fraud and tax evasion. The Azerbaijani Laundromat, revealed this week in an investigation by the Guardian, is a reminder that anonymously-owned corporate...

What specific fields of data should a beneficial ownership register collect and publish for re-use? How can that information be shared so that other individuals and systems can integrate, interpret, analyse and take action with it?

We’re delighted to announce that yesterday, Ukraine signed up to become the first country to integrate its national central register of beneficial ownership with the OpenOwnership Register. This means that Ukraine’s beneficial ownership data will be automatically available on the...

Beneficial ownership is a complex domain to model, as we’ve seen from the work we’ve already done on the OpenOwnership data standard. At the most fundamental level, the beneficial ownership standard needs to be able to identify legal entities and...

A year ago the “Panama Papers” leak exposed the use of anonymous companies to avoid sanctions, move proceeds of corruption and crime, and facilitate other illicit financial schemes. The leak put a price on doing business through anonymous companies: 400...

On April 3, 2017, the public beta of the OpenOwnership Register launches. Below, we answer some frequently asked questions about the project and the register. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’re wondering about something that isn’t covered...

OpenOwnership is building the world’s first open Global Beneficial Ownership Register which will serve as an authoritative source of data about who owns and controls companies, for the benefit of all. Why? Transparency around corporate control and ownership is not...

Andi Pawelke, Director of the Web Foundation’s Open Data Lab Jakarta and a board member of Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, discusses the importance of making Germany’s beneficial ownership register open and free.

2016 has been a landmark year for beneficial ownership transparency. Beginning with the Panama Papers leak, which placed a much needed global spotlight on the role of anonymous companies in facilitating crime, tax evasion, and fraud, and providing the safety...

Representing OpenOwnership at both the International Anti-Corruption Conference and the Open Government Partnership Summit was an inspiring way to debut our project to build a global, linked register of beneficial ownership.

Ahead of today’s meeting of European Union member states, proposed transparency amendments to the EU Anti Money Laundering Directive that would have given the public access to beneficial ownership information were dropped. The wording of the agreement reached today reads:...

Who controls and benefits from companies is a transnational, global issue. Take any case of grand corruption, large-scale fraud, organised crime or tax evasion, and it’s pretty certain it will be enabled in some way by the obfuscation and opacity...

The past year has seen huge strides towards ending the opacity of who anonymous companies, so beloved by criminals, corrupt politicians and tax evaders to mask their activities. The UK published the first public register of who controls companies, numerous...